I just devoured Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, by David Epstein. He ranges quite far and wide but the central theme of constraints acting as a conduit for creativity and for deep thought comes through powerfully. Four key takeaways for educators:
1. Frame problems precisely, rather than proposing solutions to students. The constraint of the problem forces creative and critical thinking. He was writing about professional settings, but I found myself rethinking some of the comments I leave on student writing. I need to ask more questions like, "How could you connect this point in Paragraph 3 with the point you're making in Paragraph 5 more explicitly?" or, "Right now, it seems like Source A contradicts Source B. I wonder, is there a way to resolve this tension?"
2. Inspire creativity by establishing clear boundaries. Creative thought actually requires specific constraints. He uses the example of Bach's compositions as wonderfully creative and complex, in part, because he added his own false constraints to the many rules about composition that already constrained him, producing paths for creation. "As a prominent creativity study put it, given complete freedom, our very strong urge is to follow the 'path of least resistance.' Specifically, we do only what we have done before or follow the first example that jumps to mind. Our brains enjoy convenience, and that takes less cognitive effort....In other words, when anything is possible, it becomes nearly impossible to do anything new. Complete freedom, paradoxically, leads to conformity." (p.58) Epstein goes on to lay out "preclude" constraints which forbid familiar paths and "promote" constraints which push people to consider specific new paths.
3. Offer students opportunities to practice sustained and deep focus. We are always actively training working memory and focus, in one direction or another. And we are doing a particularly terrible job of it, at the moment! He shares the work of Gloria Mark on focus over the last twenty years. When she first began her work, she "found that the typical office worker switched tasks every three minutes, on average....By 2012, office workers were switching tasks every seventy-five seconds. By 2022, it had stabilized at about every forty-five seconds." (p.154) Here's the real kicker: our brains grow so accustomed to this constant interruption of focus that, when we are not interrupted, we interrupt ourselves at the same intervals! He shares the contrasting story of Isabel Allende's writing technique of setting aside a space: "I go there, and there is a state of mind that is: I'm here to do this and nothing else and no one can interrupt."(p.152) Where do we give these opportunities to students? And to teaching faculty, for that matter?
4. Direct student attention. In a world full of endless new information, attention is a limited resource. according to Herbert Simon, "The design principle that attention is scarce and must be preserved is very different from a principle of 'the more information the better.'"(p.164)
